Katsusaki Mo woke with a start.

It was late—or maybe very early, and her heart was thudding in her chest. She had been dreaming, and she didn't quite remember what it was about, but she recalled a certain dark haired, onyx eyed boy—no, man—holding her beneath him…

A dark blush tainted her cheeks, and she hoped desperately that no one could read her mind, like her mother and Hikaru. Well, at least Hikaru. She already knew her mother could read minds—she found this fact out a long time ago.

The weekend had passed without much excitement. She worked a bit more on her gazebo on Saturday and Sunday, did her homework and her laundry, and cleaned her room as was expected of her, messed around on the internet for a good several hours, and bothered Hikaru for details about the blond haired boy that had stopped in during the afternoon on Saturday to play basketball (that is, until Hikaru told him repeatedly to go away.)

The most interesting thing that happened, however, was when Itachi had picked her up from the party the Friday before. It wasn't anything of extreme excitement; he had driven them to some coffee shop downtown that Katsu got the feeling he knew well, though he seemed particularly disgruntled; he didn't know where else to go.

They had taken a seat in one of the booths, and Itachi looked as if he had something he wanted to say, though he never said it. Katsu sat, feeling as if she was caving in. She felt incredibly guilty but she wasn't sure why. Something about the way a frown seemed to be just slightly pulling down at the corners of his lips he was upset about something.

He simply pulled out his camera, however, and took a picture of her coffee cup. They didn't say anything else as they sat there, simply in their own little worlds but in the same bubble. She was terrified mostly because she had no idea what it was that Itachi was thinking at the time. He seemed as if he knew something she didn't.

Katsu continued to wonder who the blond haired boy was. She considered the possibility that he was another member of the Akatsuki's group of friends, and someone that Itachi didn't really like all that much. Her thoughts didn't go far, not as she was gripping her coffee mug tightly and staring out the large and dark windows at the night that had long since settled.

Itachi remembered where Katsu lived with ease, and he didn't say a word as he drove there after she questioned him whether he remembered or not. He didn't turn on any music, and instead Katsusaki distracted herself by listening to the sound of the engine thrumming beneath her. Then her thoughts traveled to the admittedly handsome boy next to her.

His presence seemed to the fill the space; there was no need for him to ever be obnoxious or flamboyant—and maybe that was the reason whyeveryone and anyone knew he was around when he arrived. A simple glance in one's direction could send them reeling, and that was exactly what happened when Katsu found herself staring at the side of his head, and then suddenly into the black that sent a shiver straight down her spine, drilling into her skin in a harsh way. He only watched her for a solitary moment, a single second in time, before his eyes were back on the road again and Katsu found herself wishing that he would look at her again.

Thinking about that day brought imaged of her dream back to her. She could see Itachi's half-lidded, uncaring black eyes when she closed her own.

Spooked, Katsusaki pushed her blankets aside from her and stood on her wooden floor, her toes immediately assaulted by the freezing ground and making her move enthusiastically towards her small rug, where she quickly fell back into her previous attitude of sleep-induced walking. She glanced over at her alarm-clock, that of which blinked a steady beat of '5:21' at her. She sighed; neither her mother, nor her brother, Hikaru would be up this early. In fact, her mother probably wouldn't be up until after she had gone.

She didn't want to go back to sleep, although it would probably be more wise than taking her shower earlier. She went on and showered, anyway.

As usual, the water was too cold when she stepped in, her stupid actions induced by her sleep-filled limbs. The melatonin was gone from her system very quickly, however by the shock of icy cold water slamming into her skin.

Katsusaki yelped, then slapped her hand over her mouth, standing naked in the middle of her bathroom looking very much like a drowned rat. She had a strange feeling that today wouldn't be a very good one.

After dressing and deciding to take a little extra time to make her breakfast—that she only ended up burning after remembering she left her back pack upstairs in her bedroom—she realized she had misjudged the clock and was going to miss the bus. She rushed frantically to gather her things, pulling frantically at her curly hair that was in a wild mess around her head, thus tripping over her own two sneakered feet and went down with a thud.

Feeling defeated, and much too tired, Katsusaki decided that the best action at this point was to just admit defeat. She lay on her face, groaning disdainfully. She wondered if her mother would believe that she was sick, so she could stay home from school.

Suddenly, the phone started to ring. Katsusaki jumped, doing some sort of half-push-up, and looked around frantically. She didn't want it to wake up her mom or Hikaru, and with an unintentionally impressive leap to her feet, she raced to the phone plugged into the wall and yanked it off the hook.

"Who the heck calls someone at seven in the morning?" Katsusaki grumbled to herself before putting the phone to her ear.

"If I had called any later, we would be late."

Katsu blinked. She wasn't sure what to think for one long moment, before a frown of confusion slid across her face. There was no doubting who it was that was calling her, except that she couldn't believe that he would ever be calling her for any reason. Ever. Mostly because he was constantly making her angry; an emotion she wasn't often displaying.

"I'm waiting. Hurry up and get out here before I leave without you."

"You can't just—how did you—where did you get this number from?" Katsusaki squeaked.

"I can't understand you when you're talking at a decibel only dogs can hear. Now, I don't like to be kept waiting," Sasori spat. Katsusaki flinched as if he was about to hit her from all the way across the line. He promptly hung up, leaving her to process the information, before she felt the dread she had been feeling only moments before come back with a vengeance.

Despite the horrible feeling she had, she grabbed her backpack and peered out the front door. There, in her driveway, was Sasori's car. The tinted windows allowed her to just barely see that there was someone already in the passenger seat.

With a sigh, that of which flew out of her mouth in a puff of white that surprised her just slightly, having forgotten that winter was going to be coming about very soon, Katsu stepped out on to her porch. She shut her door behind her, and jumped as Sasori hit the horn. It was blaringly loud, and she whipped around, unable to keep the frustrated glare from her face.

Of course, she wouldn't be able to see the secretive smirk that made his lips twist upwards before disappearing completely, leaving him stoic once more.

Katsu made her way to the car and opened one of the back doors, sliding in with little difficulty. What difficulty she did have was purely emotional.

"Hey kid, good morning."

Katsu smiled when she realized very suddenly that the other figure in the car was the hulking Kisame. He looked a bit ridiculous, seeing as the car was relatively small and he was so gargantuan. Sasori glanced at her in the rear view mirror, his brown eyes close to melting her with amusement. She flinched, struggling to ignore him, once again missing the delighted, sadistic smirk that caught his lips every time she did something even remotely depictive of her resentment for him.

Her resentment was mostly coming from Friday night, when he had… she couldn't even think about it. Even the thought made her cheeks turn a sudden sharp shade of pink.

"What are you doing here?" Katsusaki asked as Sasori turned around to back out of the drive way. His eyes flickered to watch her as she desperately tried to avoid making eye contact with him, making it obvious that she was talking to Kisame and not him. The red headed male, however, scoffed at her in an annoyed way.

"Obviously we're taking you to school," he murmured, his voice calm and somehow ridiculously haughty. Before he turned back around, he paused, staring her down. She had her hands folded in her lap and she watched them as if they were the most interesting things in the world. It annoyed him, seeing her pay more attention to her tiny, probably somewhat soft hands instead of him. He couldn't imagine her to be a sculptor of any sort—her hands were too small and pale. He wondered how she would react if he held onto them.

"Why?" Katsusaki frowned. "And how did you get my house number."

"Well, seeing as you always miss the bus…" Kisame teased, looking out of the corner of his eye and the red-headed girl. Her hair was a complete mess, and there were dark circles underneath her ocean blue eyes.

"Konan gave it to us," Sasori answered her second question with ease. Katsusaki frowned, feeling suddenly betrayed by her best female friend in Konoha High. Kisame laughed at the face she made and she only pouted more when she realized that he was laughing at her. This, in turn, caused him to laugh even harder, resulting in Sasori eventually elbowing him roughly in the side due to his annoyance.

"Ouch!" Kisame yelped, though Katsu got the feeling he wasn't really wounded in any way. "I would so hit you back if you weren't driving right now and Katsu wasn't sitting right back there." Sasori must have rolled his eyes, because Kisame laughed again.

Katsu squished herself further into the seat, wishing that they would just be at school already so she could run away. Her wish was swiftly granted, thankfully, as Sasori pulled into a parking space and turned off the car. Katsu was suddenly regretful of choosing the same side as Sasori, seeing as she was suddenly faced with his lazy brown eyes. This time she didn't miss the preditorial smirk that slid across his lips, and she felt like a trapped animal as he pinned her with his gaze. He shut his door without looking, still watching her as she stared back at him, frozen in place. Something in the back of Katsu's mind screamed at her to run away as fast as possible, but something else was holding her in place.

"Hey! Sasori, un!"

Katsu noticed Sasori's gaze flicker to something just above her shoulder and the look of distaste that covered his features before she turned around to find out exactly what it was he was glaring at. She recognized the boy racing towards her almost immediately.

He dodged a crowd of giggling girls, those of which he winked at flirtatiously. They all seemed to blush in unison, their giggles turning obnoxious and annoying. His endless blond hair fell behind him, reaching to his lower back in silken waves. Katsusaki was almost jealous of how beautiful it was, wishing that her hair would be as straight and luscious as that. His blue eyes glittered with a strange excitement as he called out again to Sasori, and Katsu realized she recognized him from Friday.

Fear settled in her stomach. She didn't want to be anywhere near that guy.

"I have to get to class," she mumbled, swiftly walking around the car towards the school.

"Yeah, I have to go, too. Tell Deidara I said welcome back," Kisame chuckled.

He was too far away to really see who the red-headed girl was that Sasori was with, and he didn't particularly care. She walked away suddenly with Kisame towards the school, and there was a slight twang of curiosity but otherwise he didn't particularly care. He had news to share with Sasori; serious news.

"Sasori, Sasori, un!" Deidara yelped as Sasori began to walk away from him. He panted, running faster to catch up, and when he did he was panting hard while the puppet-master rolled his dark brown eyes towards him. Finally, Deidara got enough breath back to speak, though he was too impatient to wait long enough for him to be able to talk without difficulty. "I met the hottest girl in the history of hot at Hidan's party," he gasped.

Sasori raised his eyebrow, appearing only half curious although he suddenly felt the distinct need to listen. He had a vague idea who he met, but he refused to ask any questions. Something else made his fists clench, though it was likely that it was his annoyance at his own curiosity.

"I remember her so well—she was like an angel. Her eyes—they were like the ocean, so deep, and her hair was so long I just wanted to…" Deidara sighed, lost in some daydream.

"Are you gay?" Sasori spat, feeling a sudden onslaught of anger bubbling in his stomach for a reason he wasn't quite sure of. Deidara was an idiot, and that was likely why he was suddenly glaring at him. "You sound like some kind of love-sick puppy."

Deidara didn't respond as he normally would have, and his anger was suddenly replaced with an intense amount of dread. He struggled to swallow the strange dry lump in his throat, but it didn't go anywhere. He fought off the urge to hit Deidara, and instead focused all of his energy on keeping a level pace and his face stoic.

He imagined Katusaki was in her first hour class by now, whatever that was. He was right, of course. Kisame had ditched her when they passed Itachi, who was busy at her locker, and she waved him goodbye and gave Itachi a smile, who nodded politely in return.

Mr. Hatake wasn't in his room when she got there—probably about to be late, as usual. However, Kakuzu was sitting in his desk, waiting while he absently read through some ginormous book that Katsusaki would never even consider tackling.

She took her seat, feeling rather uneventful.

Of course, to her utter despair, English and History passed without much event and much too quickly for her liking. She found herself walking through the hallways between her second and third hour classes, wishing desperately that she was better at faking illnesses. She contemplated just skipping, but that idea was out very quickly. She would feel much too guilty, and she would also be setting a very horrible example for her little brother, which she never wished to do. If he started getting in trouble just because she skipped she would never forgive herself.

Finally, her fear of Shizune yelling at her in front of the entire class for being late made her walk faster and force herself to keep from hesitating as she walked through the door.

Itachi looked up immediately when Katsu walked through the door and the bell rang simultaneously. It wasn't like her to cut it so close, but Shizune called something slightly sarcastic to her, anyway, as she quickly made her way to the back row and took a seat next to Itachi without saying a word. He watched her for a moment as she unpacked her things, handing Itachi a flash-drive as she did so that he took without question, then yanked her notebook from her backpack.

"Your projects should be close to finished by now, so I'm hoping that it won't be a problem to get them in to me by the due date. If it is, feel free to come talk to me. Now, I'm not expecting some top-quality photos—you did just get here, so…"

Katsusaki tuned Ms. Shizune out, instead focusing her attention on a certain bored looking red-headed boy sitting several seats over to her right. He didn't notice her at first—at least, she thought he didn't. Of course she wouldn't know that he had been watching her himself only moments before she turned to look at him.

Something about her was annoying him to no end. He didn't want to admit it, but he had been having thoughts about her all weekend, ever since he saw Itachi drag her off.

The thought of Itachi made his blood boil, and he shifted in his seat. He didn't know what the fuck was wrong with him—not Itachi; himself. He was used to being in control of his thoughts and emotions, but as of late it was like they were completely out of his control.

Ice seemed to set in very suddenly as he practically felt her attention on his skin. He had the strange urge to turn to her, stare her down, make her blush bright red as she normally did and fidget in her seat. She was so frustrated with him, so angry, and he loved every second of it.

That was a strange thought to have. That he 'loved' to tease her.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, and they narrowed as he noticed her turned towards Itachi. He had always been indifferent towards the black haired boy, but maybe he was shadier than he previously thought him to be.

"We have all of our pictures, right?" She said to him, and Itachi nodded to her. She smiled. "I'm actually kind of relieved, you know? I felt like I had to take perfect pictures…" She sighed, before realization suddenly crossed over her face. "I guess we won't be hanging out after school much anymore, then…"

It was just a comment, an observation. Itachi nodded in agreement. He was hardly effected by it—he had other things to focus on, anyway. However, he had begun to notice that there was something about Katsu that seemed to draw the entire Akatsuki Club to her. Itachi was not excluded from this realization.

He was curious about her, more curious than he had ever been about any of the other estranged characters the Akatsuki Club members brought into their exclusive circle. She wasn't obnoxious, or in love with him, or jealous of him as many of the others claimed to be. She was simply… interested, curious, nice, and he might even say sweet.

He didn't know what he was doing, or why he was doing it exactly. Maybe it was because she was different, and so she became a novelty. Maybe it was because she had somehow attached him to her in the few short days they had known each other. Maybe it was because she noticed him staring and quietly asked "What?" in her soft voice. Whatever the reason was, Itachi supposed that it didn't really matter.

"We still could."

She blinked at him, her ocean eyes seeming to drown him. "'We still could' what?"

Itachi stared at her for a moment, and she tilted her head. He trusted that she was smart enough for him to not have to be obvious.

"Oh, you mean hang out after school? I suppose so, if you wanted to."

It was as if that was the last word. He turned back to the front of the class, and she thought he was ignoring her because she had said something stupid. At least, until he answered her, that is.

"I want to."

It didn't sound like the end of a conversation, but Ms. Shizune was starting to realize that her class wasn't listening any longer and was yelling at two boys in the front row. Katsusaki Mo smiled, then, and turned away just in time to miss the hidden smile carving Itachi's lips, as well.

A/U: I'm so happy! T.T

The dreaded Writers Block hath gone away, and with it's decent into non-existence, a chapter long since over due arose from the ashes of the poor, forgotten tale of Katsusaki Mo.

Yeah, alright. Most of my readers are gone. I'll be honest-I probably wont update regularly because I basically just pulled this out of my ass today as of realizing I kinda miss the Akatsuki gang. I don't even know if they're popular any more since the Naruto fandom has pretty much died out since it's stretched on for so long. Poor Masashi. :/ As far as I know, at least. I've also grown a bit since I last posted a chapter.

I'm in Honors English now, guys. :x It's terrifying. I transferred in at semester, and I'm not sure I quite belong. I needed something to distract me... .

Anyway, several people posted comments over the last few months and I really appreciate your support, those of you who have encouraged me to continue. So, this is just for you guys! And also everyone else.

Adios.